Discussion

Etiquette question regarding comped meal

Last night, I went to a restaurant with my husband and parents and had a fabulous Italian meal that to our surprise, was comped by the owner. I'm assuming it's because I'm a local television reporter. Had I known that that was going to be the case, I would never have gone. Our biggest quandry is that none of us had a lot of cash on us because we were expecting to pay in a credit card. We left $100 as a gratuity. The meal itself, likely would have been about $250. Was that enough? Did we look cheap? I felt that we should have gone to the ATM and gotten more cash out or asked to charge the gratuity but my husband felt $100 was more than appropriate saying that in the Italian culture, (he's Italian-American), when someone gives you a gift (in this case, a wonderful meal) you should graciously accept it and send a heartfelt thank you note. Thoughts??

Well, I think it's just an extra way of saying thank you. Chances are that the owner or manager who provided the comp won't take a cash gratuity as your thank you. And, you probably wouldn't attempt that anyway.

But a way to show your thanks is to tip the server a little extra. It shows your appreciation and the server will certainly pass on word of your generousity to the owner/manager.

And, you're still getting off with paying less than you would've if you actually paid for the meal in its entirety.

It actually varies by institution. I've worked at places where we can't accept anything that's worth more than $25, even if we're not working on a story that has anything to do with the giver. The publication a friend works for won't let them accept ANYthiing of monetary value. I would have turned down the free meal if I thought I was getting it because I'm a journalist (but I'm not on TV so it doesn't happen often.) I'm not judging the O.P. I just wouldn't be comfortable taking a free meal, or a free anything else. But, policies vary. I think the tip that was left was fine.

You certainly weren't being cheap. Just doing a thank you note would have been cheap, as the waiter would be the one who gets the tip and he wasn't the one paying for your meal. When getting comped food, I would make the minimum tip 20 percent of how much the meal should have cost.